The Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), continuing to flex its muscle even as a new administration prepares to take office, has initiated a “denial of access” administrative enforcement action against Google, Inc., accusing the company of refusing to produce certain compensation records demanded by the agency during a compliance evaluation. The case is OFCCP v. Google, Inc., 2017-OFC-00004.
Based on the limited information contained in OFCCP’s administrative complaint, it appears that while Google provided the agency with a snapshot containing employee-level compensation data, along with other compensation records, the company at some point determined that OFCCP’s additional compensation data requests — including a second employee-level compensation snapshot, confidential employee contact information, and a complete salary history and job history for every employee — were not justified and refused to produce the requested information.
We should point out that federal contractors have not fared well in attempts to challenge OFCCP’s authority to request information and data during a compliance evaluation. In United Space Alliance, LLC v. Solis, for example, a federal court rejected the company’s challenge to OFCCP’s request for detailed, employee-specific compensation data, stating that such submissions are “the price of working as a federal contractor.”
Members of the Equal Employment Advisory Council (EEAC) can read more here.